Stalking suspect remains jailed after hearing on secret search

A $500,000 bond was continued Wednesday for a 45-year-old Clinton Township man reported to be obsessed with a neighboring family’s 15-year-old daughter.

An attorney for Kent Ellsworth Losee asked for a reduction in the bond set after his arrest last week on felony charges of aggravated stalking and using a computer to commit a crime. Attorney Laurence Margolis of Ann Arbor asked for a bond that would allow his client to return to work at a Ford Motor Co. plant pending the outcome of the prosecution.

Losee is accused of harassing behavior in violation of a personal protection order obtained by the girl’s family in October. The girl’s mother stated in a petition for the protection order that Losee came to her home and declared he was in love with her daughter but was willing to wait for the 14-year-old to grow up.

Losee was arrested on Aug. 14 due to recent alleged behavior.A search of his home after his arrest produced evidence he was preparing to flee and possibly take the victim with him, Assistant Lenawee County Prosecutor Angela Borders said at a hearing on Aug. 15. His bond was raised at that time to $500,000 cash or surety.

After two hours of testimony at a bond hearing Wednesday in Lenawee County District Court, Judge Laura J. Schaedler denied a defense motion to reduce the bond. Testimony from Michigan State Police officers was taken during a rare closed session due to another judge’s order suppressing results from search warrants executed at Losee’s home.

After the closed testimony, Schaedler said there is evidence of a potential safety risk and a flight risk.

“He’s threatened violence to her and to young men she happens to be dating,” Schaedler said.

She said Losee’s mental health condition gives “the appearance of a complete lack of ability to restrain himself.”

Despite the personal protection order prohibiting contact with the teenage girl, she said, Losee posted YouTube videos in an attempt to communicate with her. On one posting, she said, Losee stated: “Don’t have any boys over to the house or I’ll have to find your father’s razor set and slit their throats. Ha, ha. Just kidding.”

A photograph of the girl on a night stand next to Losee’s bed also had disturbing implications, she said.

She said she was also concerned with a hidden room found in Losee’s basement.

In his divorce case, Losee’s wife described the room he built as a hidden “bunker.” Losee responded he built it as a storm shelter.

Schaedler said peepholes, locks and a door disguised as shelving are not typical of a storm shelter or fruit cellar.

Police did find evidence Losee was preparing to leave, Schaedler said. It was not proven he planned anything more than a week’s vacation at family property near Houghton Lake that was to begin Aug. 16, she said.

“If I was planning to extend my vacation and disappear for some time, it would be quite simple in the north woods of Michigan,” she said, however.

Losee does have a right to bond at this point in the case, Schaedler said.

“The question is whether $500,000 is an appropriate amount,” she said. “The answer is, I believe it is.”

Margolis said in an email after the hearing that he does not believe the prosecution has evidence to justify the actions taken against his client. Losee is a loving father and devout Christian, he said, with a 19-year history of steady employment and no record of criminal or violent behavior.

“In my view, the government did not have probable cause to arrest him, search his home, and then take his property. Based on what? Anonymous YouTube postings that the complainants never even saw, until the police decided to show them,” Margolis stated.

“I don’t believe there would be any criminal charges if this alleged infatuation did not involve a minor,” Margolis stated. “Kent is being held in jail on an incredibly high bond. The bond is not commensurate with this offense nor his constitutional presumption of innocence. We intend to fight these charges.”